This might be sacrilege to say here, but I liked the movie
more than I liked the book, but then again, I'm a huge Altman
fan. McCabe & Mrs. Miller is as perfect a movie as I can
ever remember seeing
(although Third Man comes close). anyway, the Long Goodbye is
a truly inspired movie with probably Gould's best
performance, and a terrific one by Sterling Hayden.
--Dave z.
--- In
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com, Steve Novak
<Cinefrog@...> wrote:
>
> I¹d be less gentle than Jim B...Jim D. you need to
watch it, and
watch it
> again, and again...and maybe in between repeated
viewings you need
some
> Glenfiddish or Lagavulin...or somethin¹...because
the film is
excellent!
>
> Moreover theres¹ Jim Bouton in it, the pride of
Newark (and
Yankees) as
> Terry Lennox...and for this Frenchman this is
invaluable!
>
> Steve Novak
> Cinefrog@...
>
> Heres¹ a readin¹ for you:
>
(
http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2001/01/08/the_long_goodbye_1973_review.sh
tml)
> The Long Goodbye (1973)
> Reviewed by Michael Thomson
> Updated 8 January 2001
>
> When "The Long Goodbye" was first released, Raymond
Chandler fans
dropped
> their jaws at what they perceived as an utter
outrage. How could
Robert
> Altman - one of America's most creative, irreverent
film makers -
turn
> Chandler's super-sleuth, Philip Marlowe, into a not
particularly
sharp slob?
> And of course, this is exactly the kind of fuss
Altman has always
relished.
>
> Now, more than 30 years on, "The Long Goodbye" can
be re-evaluated
since it
> is currently being re-released as part of an Altman
season at the
National
> Film Theatre. Altman cleverly hired Leigh Brackett,
who had co-
scripted "The
> Big Sleep" (still Chandler's definitive screen
moment), and she
helped
> Altman layer a picture that is as much a crisp
comment on
contemporary LA
> (and its full-on egotism) as a tale delineating
Marlowe's crime-
busting
> pursuits.
>
> As the gumshoe comes to the aid of a rather odd
friend who is
suspected of
> killing his wife, Altman employs both laser-sharp
irony and broad
jokiness
> (the latter often via John Williams' score) as he
places Los
Angeles under
> the microscope, while Elliott Gould in the lead
seems to relish the
joke of
> serving up Marlowe in a radically different
way.
>
> Excellent support is provided throughout. You might
recognise
Austria's most
> famous film star in an early, uncredited
bit-part.
>
>
> On 1/24/07 1:58 PM, "Jim Beaver"
<jumblejim@...> wrote:
>
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "JIM DOHERTY"
> >> >
> >> > It still does cause outcries from
Chandler fans, as
> >> > well it should, since it's a piece of
crap that has so
> >> > little reason to exist that, had
Altman's parents
> >> > known that conceiving Robert Altman
would eventually
> >> > result in his version TLG being put on
film, they
> >> > would have remained
celibate.
> >
> > Ooh, that's hard. I love Altman's TLG -- love
it. It's not
Chandler, it's
> > Altman, as they say. More than that, if it were
a song, it
wouldn't be the
> > Dinah Shore "Blues in the Night," it'd be the
Charlie Parker.
> >
> > Jim Beaver
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been
removed]
>
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